Blizzard Speak!

Et tu, Brute?

Recently I fast-tracked a blog about the recent issue of censorship that has arisen within the video game community. Since then there have been a few interesting updates that make this consumer revolt into something a revolution. Now, this here ain't no political blog, but if you've seen any of my other content you'll start to realize that this is my outlet to talk out about issues I care about (To anyone who'll listen) so I'll have to ask you to put up with it again as I take a look at the potential fall of Blizzard.

The gaming community, heck, every community has been practically hammering on Blizzard's door attempting to get a statement. Even the usual corporate bootlickers that are typically found on forums have surrendered before the negative-PR tsunami. (Except for the Call of Duty ones. Those guys have spent decades ignoring the gaming community around them and they ain't gonna stop now.) I even mentioned how US senators and Blizzard Employees have been airing their displeasure, through tweets and public action. Oh, and for an update on that, Blizzard employees have been staging walkouts of their main office to the complex square; a location which is apparently clearly within the view of the cooperate offices. There is no way for the suits in Blizzard's high offices to stick their head in the ground and ignore everything at this point.

Some members have even found themselves spurred on by the actions of their fallen comrade, Blitzchung, into making their own acts of defiance. In the very next official Stream on from the Blitzchung conundrum, the international Collegiate Hearthstone event, the American team expressed their solidarity mid-match by holding up a hand drawn sign to their camera reading; "Free Hong Kong, Boycott Blizzard." These three teens did so in hopes of forcing Blizzard to pan the camera away from them, which they absolutely did. Then the Americans sat around all smug just waiting to get banned by Blizzard, thus proving that the company is willing to double down on their conviction to censorship. No such ban came, but the message was in no way derailed. Instead, the Team willfully pulled out of the tournament and issued a statement calling out Blizzard's hypocrisy on the matter. If they were Hong Kong citizens, or had Chinese eyes on them through some other connection, they maintain that their fate may have been similar to Blitzchung's. (With the exception of the actual life-threatening danger that Blitzchung may have bought upon himself seeing as how he currently lives in Hong Kong.)

From a more anonymous angle, former Blizzard fans across the world have been proudly sharing screengrabs of them in the process of deleting their Blizzard accounts en masse. (An act that sacrifices all purchases, data and history that the player once had with the company.) This grew so widespread that the server's automatic anti-hack software kicked in and temporarily prevented account deletions. (Which caused a whole new outcry of 'censorship'. Even if that one was a little unwarranted.) There have even been a scant few people that have announced their plans to cancel their pre-orders of upcoming Activision/Blizzard games, of which the only notable one is Modern Warfare. (However, announcing such in now frowned upon in COD's Reddit as their community absolutely refuses to hold any social responsibility whatsoever. Can you tell that I have a bias?)

In all this uproar, you'd feel that it would behoove Blizzard to make a statement. I mean, I know that Sean Murray, court jester of controversy himself, claimed that the best response to controversy was to keep quiet, but I'd hardly call Sean Murray the wisest game director in the world. Blizzard's deafening silence has allowed the community to build it's own narratives, their employees to wander if the values they stand for still exist and adjacents like me to fill our daily quota by sharing all the chaos.

In their absence there has even been space for companies to scurry up and attempt to curry favour with the public by pretending to right Blizzard's wrongs. Another company behind the card game: God's Unchained, offered to cover Blitzchung's lost prize money in a transparent publicity stunt and even Epic CEO Tim Sweeney tried to step onto the 'screw Blizzard' bandwagon with his own twitter comments. Tim assured everyone that he would never turn on the community in order to capitulate to Chinese demand despite the fact that Tencent, the same company that managed to twist Blizzard's arm with their 5% stake, owns 40% of Epic. Sweeney insists that, because Epic is privately traded, Tencent don't have the option to walk away cold turkey and likely wouldn't seek another buyer. (Although, I'll bet that Tencent wouldn't even need to go that far to make Tim grovel.) Whether you believe him or not, you can't deny that is was a clever way to leverage attention.

But, as my title implies, Blizzard were not silent forever. In fact there was an official response made by the company's President, J. Allen Breck, not too long ago. This comes after employees were promised a video from head office that would clarify the week's event, which was promptly delayed. As of yet we're not sure if this public statement is in place of the private address or an addendum to it, but either way it has done little to calm the flames. Let's take a look at why it was so ineffective.

"Hello Blizzard Community..." it starts, willfully ignorant to the fact that this message is clearly on the world stage. You're talking to everyone right now, might as well acknowledge that. (Okay, I won't persist with being that nitpicky) He goes on to address the issue and then the concerns about whether or not the company was still abiding by their values "such as; Think Globally; Lead Responsibly; and importantly, Every Voice Matters". (If you remember, there was an incident earlier in the week wherein an unnamed Blizzard Employees stuck A4 paper over plaques that previously affirmed these values.) "The actions that we took over the weekend are causing people to question if we are still committed to these values. We absolutely are and I will explain."

Here the message delves into explaining what Blizzard want to achieve through their ESports efforts, "to bring the world together through epic entertainment, celebrate our players, and build diverse and inclusive communities." (Can they say 'Epic entertainment'? Should Tim sue?) Much like I theorized in my last blog on this matter, Allen claims that the primary concern of Blizzard, when they dished out their ban to Blitzchung, was the way in which he used his platform to make a political statement rather than to spout fluff about Hearthstone. He also goes out of his way to let us know that "Every voice matters" Just not when it's on their official broadcasts. 

After hosting an FAQ with himself, Allen makes the bold, and highly suspect, claim that the content of Blitchung's message had nothing to do with the punishment they dealt out. That's right, losing $10 000 of prize money and being banned for 12 months is just their usual fee for failing to talk pure cardgame. This enters into abject fantasy a moment later when we see the sentence "I want to be clear: our relationships in China had no influence on our decision." (Yeah right, we all believe that Blizz.)

Despite the constant affirmations about how Blizzard were in the right for every step of this process, the rest of the message is dedicated to desperate backtracking. (Almost as though your words mean nothing.) Firstly, Allen decided to grant Blitzchung his money back and reduce his ban to only 6 months. (Not sure how much that'll do since the kid relayed how unlikely it was he would ever play the game again during an interview.) Also, Blizzard decided to unfire the shoutcasters who were present and instead slap them with the same 6 month ban. (How magnanimous.) Before signing off, Allen lets us know how important it is that players "always feel safe". After throwing one of their star players to the wolves for endangering himself, that part did ring particularly hollow.

It was a shame that instead of issuing an apology, Blizzard chose to lie and backtrack in the same message. (Not too deftly handled there, guys.) It almost isn't worth pointing out the hypocrisy that arises when Mr Breck claims that any political message would incur a ban whilst those aforementioned American students were untouched for doing exactly that. (It's almost as though they were spared because they weren't from Hong Kong and therefore didn't have Chinese eyes on them. huh.) Things aren't helped by the fact that last week was absolutely fraught with examples of Chinese-international censorship, reinforcing how it does very much exist, despite Blizzard's assertions.

However, a message was issued and that may be enough to clam down their workers, if not start to mend the gap between them and the community. I've been part of the Bethesda community long enough to know that the public can be willing take any form of hollow PR trash as a heartfelt apology. (Even when no apology has been given.) Next week we will really see if this 'anti-censorship' movement has actual legs and whether it will be powerful enough to make a statement. Chinese censorship is nothing new, but this could be the dawn of a new outlook towards it. Will that be for the better or worse of entertainment? It's hard to say. There's certainly an old adage about 'biting the hand that feed you' which could come into play. But until real, lasting consequences start being forced upon our entertainment economy, I'm content to watch Blizzard squirm as it runs the gauntlet of public disdain. (God I am a sadist, aren't I?)